


A Little More Action

by Bobblychicken



Category: Cars (Pixar Movies), Planes (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-23 11:36:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23710891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bobblychicken/pseuds/Bobblychicken
Summary: One-shot in which Dusty is invited to compete in one of the US's premier aerobatics competitions, and looks to the ever knowledgeable Skipper to coach him before the big day.
Comments: 49
Kudos: 14





	A Little More Action

“So you got invited to your first aerobatics competition...” Skipper was saying as they rolled out onto the flat expanse of plains that was their preferred training ground.

“Yep!” Dusty chirped, half winded again from being reminded and the excitement of starting exercises.

“You've proven yourself well enough on the race courses so far. How's about we earn you some aerobatics titles to go with those, eh?”

“Yeah!” answered the little orange and white plane, practically starting to levitate from sheer exuberance.

“First things first,” Skipper continued, “How confident are you in getting out of spins, or even in to them for that matter?”

“Come on, Skipper, it's me we're talking about.”

“Hey, there's a difference between embarrassing yourself and throwing yourself into a spin on purpose.”

“You don't know those weren't on purpose!” Dusty said, trying to sound defensive, but the old warbird could still see a mischievous tone dancing behind his sky-blue eyes.

“Okay, get outta here,” the Corsair grumbled.

Dusty eagerly started his engine, rearing back a bit on his tail gear before pushing forward into his take-off speed, all potential trolling forgotten in an instant. He banked up almost as soon as he was airborne, climbing up into a Chandelle before beginning to circle the field as he awaited orders.

_“Okay, we're going to start with the basics,”_ he heard Skipper's voice announce through the radio, _“Let's see a Cuban Eight!”_

Dusty obeyed with great relish, diving down and leveling himself out before pulling up again and rolling onto his back. He dove back down and rolled again as he ascended the next loop, diving down and leveling out before getting back up to altitude.

_“Very nice; good, smooth movement and acceleration. Now do a halfer.”_

Dusty dropped down and leveled himself out, pulling up abruptly and rolling onto his back again as he ascended up and then dove back down out of the loop.

_“Okay, now reverse it!”_

_“Got anything challenging?”_ Dusty jested.

_“We'll get there. Now do an Inside Loop.”_

Dusty flew down low and pulled up without rolling, making a tall, wide circle they way a train on a roller coaster goes around a loop.

_“Good!”_ Skipper praised, _“Okay give yourself a good amount of altitude for an Outside Loop.”_

_“Come on, Skip, this is child's play!”_ the racer crowed boastfully as he pulled another Chandelle to gain altitude.

_“Don't make me come up there!”_

With that, Dusty dove down, making the same wide circle as he went plunging down and around another loop.

_“You good and warmed up now?”_ Skipper asked.

_“Yeah! Does that mean we can get technical now?”_

_“Alright, we'll get 'technical',”_ said the Corsair, a bit of condescending amusement in his voice, _“but before we start I need you to really focus. Always,_ _ **always,**_ _be mindful of which direction the ground is, and where the horizon is. No matter which way you might be flippin' around up there, I want you to keep your eyes on those points for me, okay?”_

Dusty looked to where Skipper was on the ground as he spoke, the seriousness of his tone sobering him up for the moment. Skipper had a way of speaking around Dusty that always made the smaller plane pay close attention for when something truly important came up.

_“Okay,”_ Dusty nodded, _“Ready for orders.”_

_“Right. So lets see you do some rolls.”_

_“What kind?_ ” asked the former crop duster.

_“Any kind. Just do whatever ones come naturally. Have some fun for a little bit and show me what you can do.”_

Dusty answered by pitching his nose up in pure delight, a happy grin on his face as he then punched forward, pulling up before barrel rolling up and over in a loop. Skipper sat back into his landing gear, just watching the kid go with a soft, lazy smile. It was supremely calming, despite the quickness and energy of the aerobatics being displayed by the young plane, to just watch him work and have a blast doing it. Dusty had a certain vivaciousness that was just so infectious and yet so humbling at the same time to a old-timer such as himself, as if his youth and energy were overflowing to the point that it couldn't be contained, pouring out from his frame and then latching itself onto the older plane's. Considering the type of bond they shared as Bonded Companions, that statement wasn't really all that far from the truth. It could really take a person back sometimes.

_“Okay, Dust, that's enough,”_ Skipper said, breaking away from his thoughts as Dusty just finished a fantastic wingover dive. _“Why don't we start throwing some spins in now. Let's see how good you can make falling out of the sky look on purpose.”_

_“You're just never going to let that go, are you?”_

Dusty's engine snorted in good humor at the gaff before letting his right wing stall out mid-flight as he soared across the sky, his body suddenly jerking around as he rolled over a few times before allowing himself to fall belly up, slowly spinning around on his back as he plummeted gradually toward the ground. Just five hundred feet from the ground he was able to recover from it and steady himself with little effort.

_“Impressed yet?”_ he asked as he rolled over onto his back and held the position as he flew right over Skipper's canopy.

_“'Atta boy, Dusty! That's the way!”_ the larger plane applauded. _“Now go up again and pick up the pace this time.”_

_“Okay!”_ shouted Dusty gleefully as he shot up in a zoom climb, all too eager to gain altitude and show off some more.

He feigned an inside loop, and as he went over the crest of it, abruptly stalled his left wing this time and began a rather out-of-control-looking, rapid spin, nose pointed at a sharp angle toward the ground. Skipper was actually about to get worried until Dusty switched it up, pausing for only a fraction of a second before starting to spin in the other direction.

_“That's very good!”_ Skipper remarked, _“You made it look like somebody tossed you by the tail when you rolled over on that first one; that's what the judges like. Now lets talk about Tail Slides and Hammerheads for a bit. Have you done any?”_

_“I've tried them a few times.”_

_“Well show me a Tailslide and we'll go from there.”_

_“Roger!”_

Dusty tilted his nose up and gunned it toward the clouds. He pulled up completely vertical and after a few moments slowly began to lose his momentum. Skipper watched carefully from the ground, trying to pinpoint the exact moment just before all forward movement was lost.

_“Okay, now drop! Just let yourself fall back,”_ he instructed as Dusty seemed to hang in the air for a second before dropping down tail first. _“There ya go... don't push the issue if you feel like you're gonna level out, just let your nose drop down- whoop!”_

Skipper laughed as Dusty's nose dropped down past the horizon and he ended up tumbling nose over tail instead of just going straight into a graceful dive. The orange and white racer bit his lip sheepishly as he chuckled a bit when his and Skipper's eyes met.

_“Well do you still want to see me do a Hammerhead?”_

_“Yeah go ahead, Dusty._ ”

Dusty once again flew up vertical, but as he turned around back into his original path, he lost it a bit and ended up doing a sort of weird Lomcevak with back flips.

_“Whoa!”_ Skipper exclaimed, _“What was that?”_

_“Ugh, sorry about that,”_ Dusty said as he leveled himself out.

_“No, no, no, that was interesting. Do you think you can repeat that with those little back flips?”_

_“Uh, okay.”_

Dusty flew back up again, trying to remember and mirror exactly what he did when he'd messed up on the Hammerhead. He began to slow, and then again backed out of the vertical, completing at least three back flips that descended at roughly a 45 degree angle.

_“How are you doing that?”_ Skipper asked, impressed but a bit baffled.

_“I don't really know,”_ Dusty answered. _“It just happens.”_

_“I guess it's just a benefit of being small and weird. And you know I mean that with the utmost respect,”_ Skipper covered, imaging the wry look on Dusty's face at that first statement. _“Do a few more of those, I think we might be on to something here.”_

Dusty did as he was told, repeating the exercise three or four times until he began to feel a bit disoriented and his vision started to swing.

_“Okay, Skipper, I think I need to take a break,”_ Dusty panted slightly, _“This is making me dizzy.”_

_“Alright. Just circle the field a few times until you feel better before you come down,”_ said Skipper, _“I think I've seen enough to get a good idea of where we need to focus your training for this thing.”_

_“Okay.”_

_“You know I really think you've got this in the bag, Dusty, after we tighten a few things up,”_ the Corsair continued. _“Once we have the individual tricks down, we'll work on your timing and come up with a routine for you. Especially if we can get you to pull off a few more back flips with that neat little move of yours. That'll really wow 'em.”_

_“You think so?”_ asked Dusty, _“Even though there isn't any Aresti Notation for it?”_

_“Sure, remember when the Silver Sage pulled out that hovering technique and almost caused a riot? That stunt practically won him that competition.”_

_“Oh yeah,”_ Dusty recalled. _“Yeah that_ _ **was**_ _pretty awesome. Do you think I could do that?”_

_“Hmm,”_ Skipper thought. _“You're light enough. You might be able to pull that off with your horsepower.”_

_“I want to try that now, just to see if I can!”_

_“Do you know how to Harrier?”_

_“Uh, more or less.”_

_“Go for it then, but give yourself plenty of altitude in case you stall.”_

Once Dusty had sufficient altitude for Skipper's taste, he began his instruction.

_“Okay now pull yourself up into a Harrier.”_ Dusty obeyed, his nose tilting up as he applied elevator. _“You're controls from here on out are going to be inverted, so do the opposite of what you would normally do. That's it, now keep it steady. Okay, now throttle! Drop your tail down and your nose up, straight up and down. Just enough to stay in the air, not so much that you keep going vertical.”_

There Dusty sat, suspended in the air by his prop, and able to hold more or less perfect form.

_“Okay, hold it, Dusty. Hold it..._ ”

But this was much more difficult and was taking more effort than the little plane had thought. It was hard enough to concentrate on keeping himself from drifting off, let alone keeping his throttle where he needed to be. He felt like he was going to stall. In no time he began to feel very hot as his prop kept trying to pull on him; feeling like it was going to come ripping off if he kept it up much longer. Not even five seconds in the air and his strength and stamina were gone. He let his breath go that he was holding and let his nose drop down.

_“Alright, that does it for me, Skip,”_ Dusty panted, _“I gotta land.”_

_“You get a little hot there?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“Okay, take a few laps; cool yourself off and bring it in.”_

Later that night, student and mentor sat together scrutinizing video footage of different aerobatics routines, commenting here and there.

“Gosh, they make it look so easy,” Dusty was saying, “I mean look at them, they look like they're bored out of their minds.”

“They're not bored, Dusty,” Skipper corrected, “They're just concentrating. Which is exactly the zone you need to be getting yourself into if you're really gonna do this.”

“Right,” Dusty muttered tiredly as he folded up his landing gear and laid down.

“I'd say you're pretty proficient at most of this stuff, we just need to get you into the habit of alternating being loose in your movement and then tightening up in close succession,”Skipper continued, “Like when you did that Four-Point Roll today, there was a little too much wobble. Judges like to see a lot of rigidity and precision, just like the second hand on a clock. See just like that; beautiful. Dusty?”

Skipper finally noticed that there hadn't been a lot of input from Dusty for a little bit, and looked down to see him snuggled up at his wheels, fast asleep. Skipper spared a softly amused smile before turning his attention back on the screen.

“Yep. You're going to do great, kid.”

SIX WEEKS LATER...

Dusty, Skipper, and the crew were watching the show and waiting their turn down on the hot asphalt of the National Aerobatics Championships Freestyles down in Texas. Dusty stood near Skipper, right below the action, sort of bobbing and leaning as his controls worked like he was practicing his routine in his head.

“Alright, you're up next, Dusty,” Skipper said, “You nervous?”

“No,” Dusty answered absentmindedly, still going through the motions as he watched the last competitor finish up.

And then it was his turn in the air.

“You ready, Dusty?” Skipper asked with a grin.

“Yep!”

“Got the secret weapon?”

“Yep!”

“Go knock 'em dead, kid! Try not to start any riots okay?”

“I'll try!”

Dusty rolled out onto the tarmac, looking up to see his name flash onto the huge LED screen with his abbreviated titles that he'd acquired thus far, and perhaps at the end of this he'd have one more. He began his take off, and as he climbed he flipped through his radio into his MP3 collection and scanned through until he came to the right track and the opening to “A Little Less Conversation” started up, instantly putting him in the perfect mood and rhythm for his routine.

“Go, kid!” Skipper muttered under his breath as Dusty went into his first loop, always the one to keep level and not be distracting in case Dusty should happen to look over at him at any time.

Although in this case that wasn't likely to happen, as Dusty was doing good on his concentration in constantly keeping the ground and the horizon in his sights. Fluid to rigid movement and back again went together seamlessly to create an effortless choreography in the air. As the first breakdown in the song was nearing, Dusty had gone into a harrier, turning himself slightly onto his left side as he slid through the air on his tail like a figure skater before going nose up.

“Come on, come on,” Skipper murmured quietly on the ground as Dusty held his position, both urging and singing along as the song and routine played in his mind.

Everybody counted, and Dusty was able to sit perfectly still in the air for a full ten seconds before letting his nose drop into a dive before he flipped up and around in an Immelmann turn. Skipper could barely contain himself in a “He's got it, by George, he's got it!” moment, and for the crowds cheering in the stands it only got better as the second breakdown came around and Dusty pulled up into what looked like was the beginnings of a Hammerhead but then suddenly broke out backwards into a series of five tumbling back flips that descended back at a 45 degree angle. The crowd went absolutely insane at the rather aesthetically pleasing sight of the little airplane tumbling out of the sky with such precise yet loose form, and the noise grew to a fever pitch when he flew up the other side of the course and repeated the move again down to a T. Skipper for his part was practically dancing around on the ground, half to the music and half with the sure thought that this competition was as good as won.


End file.
